The Torture Never Stops
The Torture Never Stops
"please do not understand me too quickly"-andre gide
I was really impressed when I saw him last year, touring One Size Fits All. His band was awesome, especially keyboardist/saxophonist Scheila Gonzalez and lead singer/multi-instrumentalist Ben Thomas, both of whom did a lot of deft instrument-switching to give the illusion of a much bigger band than was on the stage.
Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx
How lucrative is ZPZ anyway? I haven't seen them but would like to. How big are the crowds? Seems to me that beyond petty, this is a really stupid business approach by the Zappa trust. I would guess a lot of Zappa catalogue continues to sell largely because of ZPZ.
I've seen them 5 times and they never had a crowd larger than probably 1000 and I wouldn't be surprised if most were around 500 (of course I've only seen them in Cincinnati and Columbus OH, it could be different on the west and east coasts). I really don't think he's doing it for the money but to continue to let his father's music reach fans whether new or old.
Enlisting excellent musicians to perpetuate his fathers' music is a noble and challenging pursuit. A effing daunting task, not for the faint hearted. Dweezel's got a hard row to hoe. Far be it for me to question his airing these 'injustices' in the New York Times. I think some things can be kept under the hat rather than put out for public scrutiny, through a medium that is inherently crude in its accuracy at best. We don't get the whole picture. In this case, I don't feel entitled to be alerted to any of the mess. It's their problem.
One question that I see as important:
Did Gail, Ahmet, Diva, and the ZFT invest in Zappa Plays Zappa? In other words, supposing Dweezil went in the hole - say, disastrous weather grounded all planes and stranded the band in Australia for a week, with canceled gigs, no money coming in, and DZ had to pay the hotel bills and band salaries regardless. Would the ZFT share in the loss, as they shared in the profit? I'm guessing not. I'm also guessing (with no evidence) that Dweezil makes a living from ZPZ but isn't getting rich at it.
Last edited by Baribrotzer; 04-30-2016 at 02:41 PM.
Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx
Gail Zappa: Death Did Not End Her Tyranny Over Frank’s Legacy
http://www.inquisitr.com/3046259/gai...franks-legacy/
Musically so, but not personally. DZ comes off as a far milder, nicer person than Frank was. Frank would have never permitted this shit to develop against his interests in the first place. He was ruthlessly efficient in protecting his interests, which is why he died a rich man despite only modest record sales over the years. My impression is that Dweezil really does just want to shut up and play his guitar.
Dweezil and Moon are beneficiaries of the trust, as are Ahmet and Diva, meaning that they get a percentage of the trust's revenues and presumably some kind of regular payout. None of them are going to the bread line anytime soon. However, DZ and Moon are not trustees with administrative power, and I don't believe the reason for this has been explained publicly (such as whether Frank set it up this way or whether it was Gail).
The explanation I've read about the name is that it's all about the trust retaining control over the various trademarks, which are undoubtedly quite valuable. However, that sounds like a BS excuse when it comes to Dweezil touring as ZPZ. They could license the name to him for $1 and still retain ultimate control over the IP rights. In the long run, it's in Dweezil's interest to protect the family's control over IP rights for his own benefit and that of his children. It's a dick move to charge him anything more than a nominal fee for the privilege of using it, though.
Since, according to the article linked above, Gail went against Frank's specific deathbed wish to sell all his masters and get out of the music business, it seems likely she also made the decision to cut her two talented children out of the estate and attempt to prevent them from honoring their father.
If there is a special hell let's hope Gail is in it.
^^^ As profusion stated above, Dweezil *is* still a beneficiary but just has no say in the decisions of the trust. So it doesn't appear he has been cut out of the estate. But it is still really weird.
My guess is that, if he continued to work as ZPZ he would have to pay the trust a lot and then would potentially get 1/4 of it back as his "share". I'm totally with him for not wanting to do that. He's the only person generating any new revenue in the family, by touring, and keeping dad's music alive. What are the others doing in that regard? While Ahmet did a great job with the Roxy DVD how many more opportunities like that are there? Probably not many.
I was reading a little more about this after I wrote the post above. It turns out that Frank did not set up the family trust; that was Gail. Frank wanted Gail to sell his master tapes and get out of the music business, which is quite understandable given the litigation hell that Frank went through with all the major U.S. record labels.
Gail's motivation to stay in the music business and pass it on to (two of her four) children is a different question. She may have believed that she could do a better job of handling his legacy than anyone else could. She could have sold the whole collection for much more money (in adjusted dollars) in the mid-1990s after Frank's death than the family could now, since the record industry is basically dead. Business-wise, it made no sense for her to try and run a little cottage industry around Frank's image and music, compared to the millions she could have received for it back then.
Ironically, I'm not sure that Frank would have been happy about Dweezil doing Zappa Plays Zappa for so long. He didn't care about his own legacy and had little use for nostalgia (other than his weak spot for doo-wop). Dweezil has all of his father's guitar-playing genes, but not the fanatical desire to be a composer at all costs.
^ ^
Ahem.
FZ said he didn't care about his own legacy. Being who he was, would you have really expected him to come out and say anything else, no matter how he really felt?
What composer doesn't genuinely care about their works?
Steve F.
www.waysidemusic.com
www.cuneiformrecords.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin
Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]
"Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"
please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.
Change it to Dweezil plays Frank.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
FZ's last words are said to be, "Play my music." I think he cared.
That's a good point, I'm sure he wanted his music to live on even if he didn't care about his "legacy" (whatever that is). I still think he would have encouraged Dweezil to focus more on original music and not playing Frank's stuff.
Frank was a curious mix--he remained the workaday songwriter he had been in Southern California before he became famous (which colored his view of the music business), but he also had a highly romanticized notion about composers.
Sad, pathetic and totally unsurprising.
I guess my long wished-for Uncle Meat Project/Object - or at least a CD of the mono mix - aint going to surface anytime soon.
Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?
All of this sounds ridiculous. Is it possible that Dweezil is getting the shakedown, if he violates and uses the name of course, to help fund the documentary and vault salvage?
Always follow the money, right?
"Why is it when these great Prog guys get together, they always want to make a Journey album?"
- fiberman, 7/5/2015
Bookmarks